Profile: Pulp kickstart Adelaide Festival 2026
There’s no better way to start this year’s Adelaide Festival than in the warm and slightly naughty embrace of Pulp, says Fiona Shepherd
Pulp return to Adelaide the same but different, as the beloved UK-based indie veterans headline the return of the free Festival opening concert bash in Elder Park/Tarntanya Wama. Frontman Jarvis Cocker is as crumpled and comforting, sardonic and perceptive as ever, still looking from the outside in on rave culture, as evidenced by the band’s 2025 comeback single ‘Spike Island’. This impressionistic take on the legendary Stone Roses concert he didn’t attend is a testament to his enduring talent for capturing the spirit of a time or even just bottling a fleeting memory.
Cocker has always been expert at marshalling nostalgia, whether evoking the twitching curtains of 1970s British suburbia in cherished Pulp tracks such as ‘Babies’ and ‘Disco 2000’ or honouring the band’s own back catalogue of Britpop standards from ‘Common People’ to ‘Do You Remember the First Time?’. Now he embraces ageing without apology in the company of longtime compadres Nick Banks (drums), Candida Doyle (keyboards) and Mark Webber (guitar), ever ready with a droll anecdote or a dad dancing pose.
Absent from the line-up of this latest band reunion is bassist Steve Mackey, Cocker’s charismatic wingman, who passed away, aged 56, in 2023. He leaves a gulf which has been tempered by the addition of a host of touring musicians. Rather than honing in on the original members, Pulp now manifest as a ragtag collective, harnessing the power of the five additional players who have turbo-charged performances on their Here Comes More tour, including star violinist Emma Smith and percussionist Jason Buckle. Buckle is Cocker’s longstanding friend, associate and collaborator in side band Relaxed Muscle (and the one who actually made it to the Spike Island show).
2026’s Pulp present themselves on a graduated stage like a jazz big band, with a central staircase for Cocker’s delectation. The sound is bigger, the visuals are ravishing, drawing on the retro patterns and graphics of past record sleeves. Best of all, their current show has been boosted by a widely welcomed new album, More, which seductively builds on their legacy rather than apes their Britpop bangers. New tracks are slipped seamlessly into the set, from unrequited love odyssey ‘Tina’ to ‘Farmers Market’, Cocker’s concession to a middle-class love affair. Such is their confidence that they (semi-spoiler alert) typically close the whole show with a sweet and intimate new track; about as far from the rabble-rousing ‘Common People’ as they get.
In this spirit of giving the people what they want but not quite how they might expect it, there is also more from More, with a new limited EP gathering up their sultry cover of Johnny Cash’s ‘The Man Comes Around’ and two previously unreleased tracks from the album sessions, Banks’ ‘Marrying For Love’ and Doyle’s ‘Cold Call On The Hot Line’, ready to drop around the time of their Festival headline appearance. Get set for surprises and ready to party hard.
Pulp, Elder Park/Tarntanya Wama, 27 February, 8.30pm; picture: Tom Jackson.
3 more music acts at Adelaide Festival
Lirix Is Here
Lirix, aka Dr Richard Fejo, launches his music career at Adelaide Fringe, with a series of intimate concerts and original songs. The Larrakia elder promises a memorable evening featuring tracks from his new album.
Carclew House, 25 February–1 March, 6pm.
Music & Mayhem: Rebellion
An almost uncategorisable cabaret that blends punk, burlesque, drag and circus, all performed live to queer punk band Nonbinarycode from Canberra. This has all the ingredients for a Fringe night you’ll be talking about for months.
Gluttony Rymill Park, 10–15, 17–22 March, 10pm.
Soweto Gospel Choir
This massed South African choir have been global festival favourites for the past two decades, but there is no bad time to become acquainted or reacquainted with their soul power, uplifting energy and soaring solo and harmony singing. This latest show draws an emotional line from the freedom songs of apartheid-era South Africa to the US civil rights anthems of the 1960s and beyond.
Gluttony Rymill Park, 24 February, 1, 3, 8 & 9, 13, 15, 20 March, times vary.